Monday, February 9, 2009

Not knowing where it was the tortoise went randomly looking around the forest. All that the tortoise knew since its birth was the river and its surroundings from where it was fished out by villagers and happend to fall out mid-way from the bag in which it was being carried.

As it wandered, it came across a butterfly sitting on a bush and asked the butterfly if it knew the way to the river. The butterfly said it had no idea where it was before flying away.

Still wandering, it came across an almost sleepy fox. The tortoise asked the fox for the direction to the river. The fox which had returned to its place after a heavy meal was irritated for being woken up from sleep. The fox replied "Listen, my stomach is full and I want a good sleep, don't disturb me. Two, this is my territory and I don't like animals like you intruding into my space. Go away before I get hungry else, you won't be alive to ask questions". The tortoise began to leave, before the fox could get any more angry.

The tortoise walked without a break for a long time and came across a rabbit cautiously eating a nut under the cover of a bush. The tortoise asked the rabbit the direction to the river, which it said, was its home. The rabbit replied in negative,
however invited the tortoise to its burrow, which the tortoise accepted.

Before taking the tortoise to its burrow, the rabbit tiptoed over to a boulder nearby, peeped down and expressed a sigh of relief when it found the fox sleeping on the ground at the end of the slope. It then signaled the tortoise to its burrow which was under a tree nearby.

While it rained outside, the rabbit shared its food with the tortoise. The tortoise rested for a while in the burrow before commencing its journery in search of the river.

As it emerged from the burrow the tortoise was surprised to find the fox resting on the dry ground under the tree. The rabbit laughed and said the fox's territory must be wet or under water after the rain, hence had moved to dry ground from below. The fox on finding the tortoise and rabbit near the burrow attacked them immediately, while the rabbit was quick to withdraw itself into the burrow, the tortoise shrunk itself by withdrawing its limbs and head into its shell. The fox grabbed the tortoise by its teeth and tried its best to injure or eat it. However the tortoise's shell was too hard for the fox to do any damage, and in frustation dropped the shell to the ground and kicked it, the tortoise flew, rolled and finally landed in a stream of rain water flowing below.

The tortoise on finding itself in water paddled and swam with the current. The small stream as it flowed began to gain speed and strength before it merged into the river.